Despite a myriad of preventative strategies ranging from increased police presence to community-based youth interventions, gang membership has continued to rise in the United States. This is an obvious concern as gangs and gang-related activities contribute significantly to violent crime rates (accounting for 48% of the total crime rate). While some attempts have indeed proved to be successful in curbing …
Youth Violence Prevention through the Theater
On February 21st, Assistant Professor Desmond Patton gave a guest lecture to our class on community violence and resiliency among adolescent African American males in Chicago. The story of youth violence that Dr. Patton told was startling, to say the least. I used to live in Chicago and figured I knew the city pretty well. The city that I knew …
Hollywood’s Unapologetic Portrayal of Gun Violence
During a recent trip to the movie theater to see Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie ‘Django Unchained’ I felt rather unsettled to see two young parents sitting in front of me accompanied by a young boy who was barely ten years old. In classic Tarantino fashion the controversial film became a glorified blood bath as its characters wielded guns, fought violently …
Can Employment Opportunities Reduce Youth Gang Violence?
As a young adult, whenever I see a news article or a new study surface about youth gang violence, I always become curious about the factors that influence a youth’s involvement in this area of violence. I think this curiosity arises from the fact that I have never directly been exposed to gang violence. However, it’s apparent that youth gang …
Social Media Taken Too Far?
image by: DeclanTM via flickr Today more than ever, people of all age groups are extremely reliant on the internet. Whether they use electronic media to exchange information for work, search online journals to write papers, or to keep in contact with friends and family, the internet is one asset that many people feel they cannot live without. As I …
Preventative Policing
After noticing a sharp increase in robberies in Brownsville, a New York City neighborhood with many public housing developments, New York City Police Department Housing Bureau Chief Joanne Jaffe first tried to increase conventional policing strategies. However, by early 2007 Chief Jaffe had begun to think of new ideas for police interventions in the neighborhood. Chief Jaffe had decided to …
Like My Suicide Status
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, social networking websites are the most common activities for today’s youth. So many teenagers and young adults are on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram posting intimate parts of their lives for all of the friends to see. From pictures of the night before or written updates, social networks serve …
Social Justice Forum on Gun Control & Violence
This past Friday, I attended a forum with a focus on gun control, gun violence, and social justice solutions. As a brief introduction, the speakers at this event were: Dr. Desmond Patton – his “research is broadly focused on urban African American male development and identity. He is specifically interested in the mechanisms and processes underlying how African American adolescent …
Digital Fantasy No More?
Is there a link between violent video game playing and violence in real-life? This question has been around for quite some time, but as a result of recent gun related violence, it is taking center stage again. This past week, an article was published in the New York Times titled “Shooting in the Dark.” This article highlights the complexities that …
Television and Aggressive Behavior
Two studies published this week in the journal Pediatrics shed light on television consumption and its effect on aggressive behavior and criminal activity in children and young adults. Researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand found the more television children watched, the more likely they were to have a criminal conviction, a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder and more …
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